What is the Strategy? In first grade, learning about the world and its size is an important part of their social studies unit. This is a fun way for students to learn and understand how to graph, as well as, estimate location that applies to them personally. I would use this activity to get my students thinking about spatial reasoning as well as understanding the different levels of mapping.
How Does it Work? The students would start with a center area (their home or school) and would expand from there. We would talk about how our city is larger than our house so the circle we make must be bigger than our house shape. From their we would think of locations bigger than a city, (our state) and so on. Students will understand that the larger the areas get, the larger the circle we cut must be.
Scaffolding For students that may require an additional challenge, I would have then think and estimate about the actual area size of our city, etc., and write the distance they think it is on the back. Then, I would have then search it on the internet and see how close they were. For students that may require a little extra help with this activity, I would shrink down the overall map size. For example, I would have them think of items in the room and see which items are larger than others and create a map based on that. This way those students are still using spatial thinking, but are able to visually and physically see the items.
2. Sensory Figures
What is the Strategy? This activity is a great way for students to organize their thoughts and ideas while learning about the Early English Settlements through a reading activity. This is a creative way to get students to step into the characters eyes and go more in depth into the history.
How Does it Work? Students will complete the statements shown next to the figure with whom they are learning about. They will organize their ideas by describing what the character watched, listened, ate, smelled, felt, and touched. The students will also need to include the words from the work bank, improving their vocabulary. Scaffolding For students that may require an additional challenge, I would have them create a story from the this worksheet through the voice of the character using the facts they have just written about. For students that may require a little extra support, I would help point out each section of the worksheet while I was reading without giving away the answer. This way they aren't missing out on the content or answers.
3. American Revolution Timeline
What is the Strategy? This activity is a great way for students to solve routine multiple-step problems by constructing, collecting and displaying the history of the American Revolution in a timeline. How Does it Work? Throughout this unit, students will be learning about the timeline of the American Revolution. For this activity students will construct their own timeline of the American Revolution with the facts they have been learning. Students will be given strips to fill out the important moments and dates. They will then glue all the strips together in order to create a timeline for them to refer back to in the future. Scaffolding For students that may require an additional challenge, I would have them create examples with pictures or other facts of what happens during each time jump on their timeline. For students that may require a little extra support, I would give them the dates or facts to help them understand what they are supposed to do and guide them towards the overall learning target of creating a timeline.
4. True, False, Fix
What is the Strategy? For this activity students are using their new skills and concepts they have learned to distinguish true and false sentences. This is a great way for students to practice and increase their understanding on the specific content.
What is the Strategy? I would have multiple typed up true and false statements based on the content we are learning in class. They are then divided into paris around the room. Each group will start with a pair of statements, read them, and glue the one they think is correct right side up on their blank sheet of paper. They would have to get them checked by the facilitator (teacher) to move onto the next station. For example one station would have a slip that said "Mexico won the Mexican-American War" and another slip that said "American won the Mexico-American War". Students would choose the true statement and glue it to their paper. What is the Strategy? For students that may require an additional challenge, I would have them become the facilitators to check different groups work to make sure they got the correct answer. I would also have them create their own stations by creating their own true or false questions. For students that may require a little extra support, I would allow them to use other resources in the classroom, like the internet, text books, or previous lessons we have done in the class.